Will 'Logan' win an Oscar? James Mangold sounds off on superhero snobbery

Despite raking in billions at the box office, superheroes haven’t gotten much love from the Oscars (Heath Ledger’s turn as the Joker notwithstanding). This year, movie fans thought that plotline would change – thanks to Deadpool. But when the nominees were announced in January, Ryan Reynolds’ “Merc with a Mouth” was left off the ballot – despite an 84% favourable rating on Rotten Tomatoes and over $780 million in worldwide ticket sales.

But Logan – Hugh Jackman’s last outing as Wolverine – could finally change the notion that superhero movies are only fit for fanboys and kiddies.

With a tip of the cap to Clint Eastwood’s dark western Unforgiven, which won Best Picture at the 1993 Academy Awards, director and co-writer James Mangold has carefully steered the comic book genre in a more adult direction.

And it’s one that might reap rewards come awards season next year.

“Like all institutions, the Academy has been a little slow to acknowledge the thing that younger people are responding to,” Mangold tells the Sun down the line from New York.

“I view the comic book movie as the western of our time. Back when westerns were king in the ‘50s and ‘60s, people probably wrote similar opinion pieces decrying that they were drowning in westerns and when would it stop, just the same way they are talking about comic book movies now. But 40, 50 years later, people still remember the really good westerns, and the crappy ones have disappeared.

“I’m sure if we did a little bit more investigation we would find that it took some time before the western was honoured by the more institutionalized awards and film festivals because it takes awhile.”

As the 10th film in the X-Men franchise – and the ninth time Jackman has played the character – Logan is so far one of the best reviewed movies of 2017 – mimicking the pattern set by 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road.

That dystopian action flick earned raves for co-writer and director George Miller and ended up nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

As a road movie featuring Wolverine on the run with a young girl (Dafne Keen’s Laura) and his aging pal (Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier), Logan shares a celluloid DNA that’s closer to ‘70s classics like Taxi Driver and Paper Moon than it does to the original X-Men film.

And by telling a story that is firmly aimed at adult moviegoers, Mangold is freed from the notion that he has to appeal to nine year olds.

“That’s more than just bad language and violence; it’s ideas and scene length and pacing,” he says. “Once the studio gave up on the notion that children were going to see this movie, you get to make a different type of film that people might not anticipate.”

Mangold isn’t sure that his approach will result in an Oscar, but he says it’s only a matter of time before a comic book film takes home Best Picture.

“Some movies are first perceived as a commercial thing before (award shows) see the artistry in some of them,” he says.

But he’s not sure if future directors entering the genre should try and copy his grown-up, R-rated approach to a tee.

“I don’t think the answer is for people to do something like what we did, and I don’t think people should try and copy what Guardians of the Galaxy or Deadpool did,” he says. “I wanted a film where our chief special effect was emotion and feeling… once you enter that arms race where it’s a spectacle, the thing that gets squeezed out is feeling anything for the story. The more you look at that and realize no one is feeling anything, the more you realize you have to throw in additional special effects to keep the audience awake. It’s this hamster wheel.

“Do I feel it would be good if directors broke free of that? Sure. But there are a lot of ways to do that.”